django.core.checks.register shouldn't be (primarily) a decorator

[Shai Berger]

django.core.checks.register is commonly used as a function, called from AppConfig.ready(), and not as a
decorator; but it is defined as a decorator, so it looks a little funny:

        checks.register('models')(check_generic_foreign_keys)

(from the contenttypes AppConfig, for example).

Registering checks only in ready(), rather than at import time, is now the way
to do things, so register() should typically not be used as a decorator; I
think we should change its definition accordingly, to

        def register(self, check, *tags)

---

The above is, essentially, an old ​message of mine to django-developers; in that thread, you can find Russell agreeing, and Marc adding that the checks documentation needs to change as well. However, since 1.7 was already released, register needs to be changed in a backwards-compatible way -- so that it can be used either as it is currently, or using the more natural style.

[averybigant]

pull request: ​https://github.com/django/django/pull/3473

[Tim Graham]

I left comments for improvement on the PR. Please uncheck "Patch needs improvement" when you update it, thanks.

[averybigant]

Replying to timgraham:

I left comments for improvement on the PR. Please uncheck "Patch needs improvement" when you update it, thanks.

new commit pushed.

[Tim Graham <timograham@…>]

In b7a5b6ab8672daf907ba57e50edbed4cad596d4b:

Fixed #23750 -- Allowed core.checks.register to be used as a function